CTBT DEFEAT MEANS RUSSIA WILL NOT RATIFY START 2 AND THAT MISSILE DEFENSE DEPLOYMENT WILL TRIGGER AN ANGRY RUSSIAN RESPONSE

Martin Woollacott, The Guardian (London), October 15, 1999 SECTION: Guardian Leader Pages; Pg. 22 HEADLINE: America: selfish, foolish and endangering the world; Xenophobes in the US senate have sent out a dangerous message // ln-10-29-99-acs

And the same is true for Russia. There, the American decision makes it less likely than before that the Duma will either endorse the two Strategic Arms Limitation treaties before it or agree to American requests that Russia accept changes in the anti-ballistic missile treaty. That in turn increases the chance that America will next summer - right in the middle of the Russian presidential election campaign - choose to go ahead with a national missile defence system without having secured Moscow's agreement. At that point the whole structure of agreements with Russia could be threatened.

DEFEAT OF CTBT IN THE USA MEANS OTHER NATIONS WILL NOT MOVE FORWARD ON ARMS CONTROL EFFORTS

Financial Times (London), October 15, 1999, SECTION: COMMENT & ANALYSIS; Pg. 23, HEADLINE: American isolationism put to the test: Rejection of the nuclear test ban treaty demonstrates how world issues are pushed to the fringe of US politics // ln-10-29-99-acs

Defeat of the treaty may not lead to any immediate resumption of testing; the five established nuclear powers have all said they will continue the test moratorium in effect since 1996. But it will have a deadening effect across the range of arms control efforts, starting with the CTBT itself. No further progress can be expected from Russia and China, which have signed but not ratified the treaty; nor from India, which had promised Washington to sign; nor Pakistan, which had indicated its signature would follow India's.